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Loveland boy's basketball runs out of time against Poudre

Indians' fourth-quarter rally falls short in Front Range League tilt

By Sean Star Sports Writer

Posted:
02/12/2013 10:08:10 PM MST

After Poudre High School's Lake Reed scored 17 points through three quarters, it appeared that all the Loveland High School boy's basketball team had to do was slow down the Impalas' volume scorer for a chance at a comeback.

Sure enough, the Indians were able limit Reed to just three points in the final frame on 1-of-4 shooting. But that opened things up for some of his teammates, like Zach Casey, who made a pair of layups down the stretch to stave off an LHS rally as the visiting Impalas escaped with a 55-52 Front Range League victory on Tuesday night at LHS.

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"Obviously our focus before the game was to keep (Reed) under control," LHS coach Reece Gliko said of the FRL's leading scorer. "But I think we realized some of those other guys on their team were making some shots, and they did a great job supporting him.

"They got a couple easy looks there at the end, cuts to the basket where we kind of over-helped. I wish it wouldn't happen, but with a guy like Lake, you might over-help sometimes and be more concerned with him than you should be."

LHS struggled shooting all night, staking visiting Poudre to a nine-point lead, 49-40, midway through the fourth quarter. That was the largest lead of the night by either team, but it was quickly cut down to a one-possession game after a 7-0 Loveland run, capped by five straight points from Conor Lang.

After Casey's buckets put the Impalas back up five, LHS got an and-1 from Brian Strasbaugh with less than a minute to keep his team alive. Then following a missed Reed free throw, the Indians had an opportunity to send it to overtime with possession of the ball and 7.1 seconds left. But Joe Elting's 3-pointer sailed long, dropping the Indians to 12-8 overall and 7-6 in league play.

Reed finished with 20 points on 7-of-19 shooting -- three points below his season average -- while Casey was the only other Impala to score in double figures with 12, five of which came in the fourth quarter. With the road win, Poudre improved to 9-11 overall and 5-8 in league play, avenging a 22-point home loss in the teams' previous meeting last month.

"It has to go through Lake. He draws so much attention. And we've been having a hard time with the other guys when the other team doubles and how to attack it," PHS coach Steve Hawes said. "And I thought they did a great job of that tonight. Then when it's one-on-one, they had the courage and the guts to make those plays late, because it's not easy. When it's 1:40 and it's a three-point game those plays are tough."

Etling led the Indians with 17 points, while Ryan Andrews (14), Lang (10) and Strasbaugh (10) each reached double digits.

Nine of Lang's points came in the fourth, when finally the LHS offense started to find its shooting touch. After going 11-of-36 (30.6 percent) through the first three frames, Loveland made 6 of 11 in the fourth. But it was too little, too late, as Poudre had outscored the hosts 12-7 in the third to extend its two-point halftime lead to seven, 40-33, after three.

"Just an off night I guess. I can't pin-point a reason," Strasbaugh said of his team's shooting woes. "I think we have a lot of fight. We definitely don't want to lose on our home court. We were expecting to win this game, so we had a good surge back. We just couldn't close the gap; we didn't have enough time."

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